STRANGE ADVENTURES #237: "The Skyscraper That Came to Life!"

Above: a giant, clomping Empire State Building made me plunk down my twenty cents. STRANGE ADVENTURES is copyright 1972 by National Periodical Publications, Inc.

Pretty much any title that ended in an exclamation mark was, when I was a kid, worth checking out. STRANGE ADVENTURES Vol. 23, No. 237, July-August 1972 had a cover story with just that.

"The Skyscraper That Came to Life!" was written by John Broome with art by Sid Green and Joe Giella. This is a comic book I remember buying with my own money and reading during a long car trip from Kansas to Colorado.

Here's the idea (spoiler alert): General Zo, an alien from the planet Kalar-Wi comes to Earth, disguised as a film producer. He's searching for his missing alien colleagues.

Here's his wacky plan:

So, he has this science fiction film under his arm. It's titled "Invasion of the Skyscrapers" and it's created using advanced alien technology. He sells the movie, gets it distributed and it will "come to the attention of our missing agents, who'll realize that someone from Kalar-Wi has arrived! No matter where they are on Earth, they'll contact the producer -- me! All I have to do is wait!" I guess the agents are film fans and will recognize Kalar-Wi CGI effects!

The entire story, along with the great twist ending is here. It's just 6 pages, but it's 6 pages I'll always remember:

As you can see, it was actually a reprint from STRANGE ADVENTURES #72, September 1956. So, even thought it was 16 years old when I first read it, I didn't care. It still resonated! And it had exclamation points!

And I never dreamed at the time that one day I would be in the Berndt Toast Gang and get to have lunch every month with the one and only Joe Giella, who now draws the MARY WORTH comic strip!